"...a park that responds to its setting, its constituents, and the ‘imperfect grid’ language of Terra Nova."

  • WithLynne Werker
  • ClientCity of Richmond Parks
  • Completed 2013
  • Award2017 Richmond Urban Design Awards
  • Award2015 National CSLA Award of Excellence

Terra Nova Adventure Play Experience
Richmond BC

In the City of Richmond’s words, the Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment (TNAPE) is “a place for off-leash kids”. Located on the Middle Arm of the Fraser River, the existing Terra Nova Rural park contains a myriad of landscape types: intertidal foreshore, dykes, sloughs, and past and present agriculture and fishery use. It also boasts a nature preschool and community gardens. Our concept for the park borrows extensively from the character of these existing types.

 

The site aspires to be a place where play provokes curiosity and stirs the imagination; where challenge and risk are embraced, not feared; where stories of the land unfold in a variety of ways. The project grew from a strong process including response to site master planning, client-consultant collaboration, engagement of citizens of all ages, and a desire to provide challenging, distinctive play opportunities.

To start, Hapa, Lynne Werker and the City designed a unique engagement process that included the “Big Kids,” a team of adult advisors, and the “Little Kids,” students from two local schools. Both groups were asked to explore the idea of play using words, clay models and sketches. This process was documented in the “Playbook,” and identified possible design features and the following themes that were embodied in TNAPE:

Imagination;
Thrill and Movement;
Height and Prospect;
Heritage; and
Natural Materials.

 

Over the course of two-plus years, we guided the project through an extensive integrated design process, including research into play design and equipment, collaborative testing and refining of design possibilities, CSA compliance assessment, conceptual through detailed design, and construction review. The trail was constructed by City forces, which entailed close collaboration between all parties.

The TNAPE is organized into distinct zones. The Homestead is the site of a historic farm house and mature remnant trees, and includes a 10m tall tower complete with a 6m high stainless steel spiral slide; The Log Jam, a climbable timber structure that evokes beach logs and woodpiles, an aerial rope walkway with nine climbing challenges; The Spinnery, where kids can spin to their hearts’ content, and a farm-inspired water and sand play area; The Gymcrazium is for climbing and challenging physical feats; The Sand Factory is for imaginative play with sand and loose parts and; The Paddock, once housed horses and stables and is thus a much more open play environment. It includes large tandem ziplines, giant swings, a twisting slide down a hillside, a meadow maze with paddock fences and stiles, and a picnic area.

 

Throughout, wood was sourced locally and minimally milled, and traditional timber framing techniques were used to allow for simple connections and relatively easy end of life replacement. The result is a park that responds to its unique setting, its constituents, and the imperative to provide exceptional play. Its design responds to concerns that have been raised of an emerging “Nature-Deficit Disorder” among children increasingly disconnected from nature. Since opening, TNAPE has become a mecca for families from Richmond and Greater Vancouver, keen to explore a unique play experience. It is not unusual to see several hundred children climbing, sliding, rolling and running at one time.